On our last whole day and
the very last day of school, Miss Jessup said anyone who wanted to could
make a card for me. While she was passing out the paper, Henry said:

What will Libby do?

She can draw or write whatever she wants.

I decided to make a good-bye card for the class. I wondered how many
people would make cards for me. I could tell that they were all coloring
by the way their arms were moving. But even though I could see some
of the drawings, I didn't know if they were cards for me. Even when
they were done, I didn't know, because Miss Jessup collected them all:

I'll give them to
you at the end of the day, Libby,she said.

So I had to wait until we had put our chairs up and were standing on
line, waiting for the bell. And then, finally, when we were walking
out, she gave me a stack of cards - a thick stack.It felt like most
people had made me one!

I flipped through them:
I could tell right away that lots of the girls had. There were little
pictures, all colored in. They had put their addresses on the back (Miss
Jessup told them to do
that) and Love, after the messages and before their names.
I was surprised that the girls liked me so much! Or maybe that's just
how girls write?

I counted the cards: twenty. But there were twenty kids in the class.
Could she have put my card in the pile by mistake? Or had I made a mistake
counting?

I looked through more carefully and saw that even Miss Jessup had made
a card! Hers didn't have a picture, just the school's address in small,
neat handwriting. Inside, she had written:

Dear Libby,
Your English school will be different, and perhaps difficult. You have
a good mind and many abilities: use them. Try your best, even in those
subjects that do not appeal to you. And remember that while you are
in a foreign land, you are a representative of America. You may, perhaps,
be the only American your teachers and schoolmates will ever meet. Make
your behavior embody the ideals that have made Americans throughout
history proud of themselves and of our country.
With best wishes,
Minerva Jessup.

That was nice of her!

Henry had drawn a picture of a boat with LIBERTY in big letters on the
side.. Inside, he'd written:

Libby
I will see you in six months. Write to me as soon as you get there and
I will write back.
Your friend,
Henry Hart

Well, no BOY would sign a card love. I wouldn't either!

I counted the cards again. This time, too, it came out to 20 - so everyone
had made one. I was reading them all in order when Henry came running
up.

Look.He held out a fortune-catcher - but I couldn't choose
anything, because the four squares at the top were blank.

Then he opened it and inside I read:

He closed it - (fortune-catchers always
look like little mouths closing and opening to me) - and when he opened
it the other way it said:

Yes, I said out loud. I'll
miss you a lot.

We looked at each other without saying
anything and then he ran across the street. After he crossed he turned
around and waved and I waved back as hard as I could. I really, really
like Henry.

I would miss him - but it was good
that he would miss me, too. I looked at his card again, and decided
to put it, and the fortune-catcher, inside Grimm's Fairy Tales,
so they wouldn't get ripped on the voyage.

This isn't
a real card that I got: someone made
it for the book. It's meant to
show the ship's journey. It starts with the
people waving goodbye and ends with an
English soldier. Click it if you'd like to see a
bigger version.

If you
draw a good-bye card andemail it to me, I will
put yours on the
site, too.